This thesis is a critical examination of civic nationalism that focuses on the disconnect between nationalist ideology and the social bases of nationhood, and the implications that this disconnect has for the feasibility of civic nationalism as a policy prescription for issues such as intra-state nationalist conflict and immigrant integration. While problems with the principles of civic nationalist ideology are important, my focus here is the more significant problem that civic nationalism is based on a general theory of nations and nationalism that treats them as solely ideological phenomena. Against this I argue that the term ‘nationalism’ refers to several different phenomena, most importantly a ‘system of culture’ or way of organizing society as described by Ernest Gellner and Benedict Anderson, and that augmenting Gellner and Anderson’s theories with the kind of relational social theory used by authors such as Rogers Brubaker and Charles Tilly provides an alternative explanation that is a better match for the evidence. If this is the case, I contend, then civic nationalism is both a misrepresentation of the history of nations and nationalism and infeasible as a prescription for policy issues such as intra-state nationalist conflict and immigrant integration. These arguments are supported with empirical evidence that is principally drawn from four cases: France, the United States, Northern Ireland, and Canada. / Thesis (Ph.D, Political Studies) -- Queen's University, 2012-11-27 11:21:47.013

The Northern Irish conflict known as the Troubles reached a peace process in 1998, through the framework of the Good Friday Agreement. Infused in the agreement are the traits of consociationalism, a theory often articulated by Professor Arend Lijphart. While Lijphart himself condemned a consociational democracy for Northern Ireland as unrealistic in its initial stages, the political settlement in the region is today one of the key confirming cases of consociational theory. However, while political cementation, enabled through this agreement, heightened the opportunities for the political accommodation of groups in a heterogeneous Northern Ireland, the traits of consociationalism offers less normative measures as to move beyond conflict management. The intent of this essay is to understand the barriers and opportunities of consociationalism in tangling the complexity of Northern Ireland as a deeply divided society. Moreover, this disciplined configurative case study will grant insights on whether the theoretical framework has offered sufficient explanatory power for Northern Ireland in making the shift from conflict management to conflict transformation. Through the application of consociationalism and nationalism, the barriers and opportunities of the Good Friday Agreement in maintaining a Northern Irish identity will be discussed and analysed by theoretical and qualitative means.

Power-sharing is introduced in ethnic-divided and ethnic-polarised countries with the aim to prevent and/or end conflicts. The purpose is to include different groups in power-sharing positions. This paper has focused on two of most used power-sharing theories, Centripetalism and Consociationalism, and conducted two case studies in Bosnia and Hercegovina and Nigeria who both have implemented one of these power-sharing arrangements. While previous research has focused on whether power-sharing institutions are effective when wanting to meddle peace, we found that there was absence of research and understanding in who is allowed in the power-sharing and which groups are excluded from power-sharing. From the previous research we found that there is an underlying idea that the people included in power-sharing are the majorities within the context, which we found problematic. We used data from the first and the latest election of each country, as well as political manifestos from the most popular political parties, and public documents to understand if there is a correlation between power-sharing arrangements and the inclusion or exclusion of minorities. The method used to analyse the empirics was the Critical Discourse Analysis which is used when wanting to analyse social power in terms of control. The result showed that there has been a positive change over the past years where the discourse of including minorities in power-sharing is more common today than during the first election. Although there were some positive results, we also found that this discussion is more theoretical than practical and if this was to become reality, there could be a backlash on the peace. Although these power-sharing arrangements have been used for over two decades in both of the countries, both of the studied countries have discriminatory constitutions, where some groups are favoured in the society.

Une montage-refuge pendant des siècles pour les minorités de la région, le Liban, pays démocratique fondé sur le respect de la liberté d’opinion, de croyance, et d’expression faisait exception. Cependant, c’est aussi un pays qui, depuis qu’il a accédé à l’indépendance en 1943, vit une instabilité qui se traduit par des crises politiques pouvant parfois le faire basculer dans la guerre civile. Son instabilité semble être liée à un système confessionnel et à une géopolitique compliquée où facteurs locaux, régionaux et internationaux s’entremêlent de façon toujours plus complexe. Ce travail se propose de revenir sur les événements de 1975-1990 en vue d’étudier les données internes pour étudier ultérieurement les données externes de la guerre. Nous essayerons d’élucider les causes qui font exploser la violence dans le pays selon un cycle à peu près rythmé. L’étude procèdera ensuite à une analyse du système consociatif libanais pour mettre la lumière sur les lacunes qui y existent. / A mountain refuge for hundreds of years for the minorities in the region, Lebanon, the democratic country that was founded on respect for freedom of opinion, belief, and expression was an exception. However, it is also a country which, since it gained independence in 1943, lives instability resulting in political crises that have sometimes resulted in civil wars. Its instability seems to be linked to a denominational system and a complicated geopolitical one where local, regional and international factors intertwine ever more intricately. This work intends to revisit the events of 1975-1990 to study the internal data of war to further study the external givens of war. We will try to elucidate the causes of violence that blew in the country in an almost rhythmic cycle. The study then conducts an analysis of the Lebanese consociational system to shed light on the gaps present there.

This thesis deals with a number of selected peace plans for Israeli-Palestinian conflict and their solutions for the most crucial problems of this area. These problems are: Palestinian refugees, Israeli West Bank settlements, Lack of water resources, Jerusalem and Gaza strip. The first chapter summarizes the history of the development of this area before the formation of the state of Israel until today and also presents the current political situation of Israel. Next chapter continues with the research of these problems, which are almost always present and dealt with by new peace plans. The following chapter introduces selected peace plans and analyzes their encompassed solutions for the selected problems. The thesis ends with a chapter, in which the author attempts to suggest a suitable future scenario for the State of Palestine, which would be acceptable for both sides.

No description available.

Depuis 2004 et la résolution 1559 appelant au retrait syrien, le Liban est l’objet d’une action internationale extrêmement intense. En effet, le Conseil de sécurité des Nations unies (CSNU), face à la nouvelle configuration libanaise et levantine, a déployé des mécanismes issus de la sécurité collective afin de renforcer les attributs régaliens de l’État libanais. Le maintien de la paix, à travers le renforcement de la Force intérimaire des Nations unies au Liban (Finul), et la justice internationale, à travers la création du Tribunal spécial pour le Liban (TSL), sont les deux principaux outils visant à maintenir la paix et la sécurité internationales par le prisme libanais. Dans les deux cas, la France, que ce soit militairement ou diplomatiquement, a été singulièrement active.Partant de ce constat, notre thèse vise, dans un premier temps, à déconstruire les mécanismes onusiens mis en oeuvre dans le cas libanais. Il s’agira, plus précisément,d’appréhender les différentes logiques qui sont constitutives de l’action du CSNU au Liban.Que ce soit en matière de maintien de la paix ou de justice internationale, les résolutions onusiennes et les organes qui en découlent font face à la souveraineté nationale et reflètent ainsi l’éternelle opposition entre les chapitres VI et VII de la Charte des Nations unies. Or,nous verrons que dans le cas libanais, le CSNU met en oeuvre une action hybride oscillant entre une logique coercitive et une logique consensuelle.Dans un second temps, notre thèse analysera la tension permanente de l’État libanais,qualifié de quasi-État, entre des dynamiques supra-étatiques traduites par les résolutions onusiennes et des dynamiques infra-étatiques incarnées par des acteurs communautaires et confessionnels, parfois transfrontaliers, et propres au système consociatif libanais. Nous tenterons alors de mesurer le degré de consolidation de deux des attributs régaliens du quasi-État libanais : la défense et la justice. Plus largement, il s’agira de s’interroger sur la possibilité pour l’action internationale, héritière du système westphalien, de remplir ses objectifs dans un environnement national et régional qui questionne plus que jamais la possibilité de maintenir et de conforter des États-nations.À l’aune de la régionalisation des conflits depuis 2004, et particulièrement depuis2011 au Levant, nous conclurons à la difficulté pour le CSNU de faire face à des États déliquescents ainsi qu’à des conflictualités d’interface qui non seulement sont en plein essor,mais qui sont par ailleurs de plus en plus liées les unes aux autres. / Since 2004 and Resolution 1559 demanding Syrian withdrawal, Lebanon has been subjected to an exceptionally intense international action. Facing a new configuration both in Lebanon and the Levant, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has indeed implemented mechanisms of collective security aimed at strengthening national sovereignty.Peace-keeping through United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) enhancement and international justice through the creation of the Special tribunal for Lebanon (STL) are the main tools for maintaining international peace and security in a Lebanese perspective. In both cases, France has been particularly active, be it militarily or diplomatically. Setting out from this premise, our thesis, to begin with, will aim at deconstructing the UN mechanisms implemented in the Lebanese case. More precisely, we shall try to apprehend the constitutive logics of the Security Council’s action in Lebanon. Whether in peace-keeping or in international justice, UN resolutions and the bodies created by them are faced with national sovereignty and, therefore, reflect the eternal opposition between chapters VI andVII of the United Nations Charter. Nevertheless, it will be shown that, in the Lebanese case,the UNSC has developed a hybrid action, fluctuating between coercion and consensus.Then, our thesis will show how the Lebanese State, which we will describe as a “quasi-State”, has to face an ongoing tension between supra-State dynamics expressed by UN resolutions and sub-State dynamics embodied by communitarian and religious representatives, sometimes cross-border, which are specific to the Lebanese consociationalist system. We shall later determine the extent to which two of the Lebanese quasi-State’s attributes, defense and security, have been consolidated by international action. More broadly, we will wonder whether international action, as an heir to the Westphalian system,can achieve its goal in a national and regional environment that challenges, today more than ever, the possibility to maintain and support nation-States. In a context of regionalization of conflicts since 2004, and especially since 2011 in the Levant, we shall come to the conclusion that the Security Council still has problems indealing with deliquescent States and with what we will call “interface conflicts”, which not only are booming, but also are more and more inextricably connected to one another.

Les révolutions de l’Est ont induit la fragmentation des Etats qui s’est accompagnée, sur le plan interne par une renaissance des partis ethniques ; ce qui ne va pas sans poser de problèmes à la démocratie politique. Les transitions et a fortiori les consolidations démocratiques font émerger un double phénomène d’interaction entre les acteurs et le système, dans la recherche d’un nouvel équilibre. Les partis ethniques se politisent alors que le système s’ouvre à l’acteur ethnique. On assiste donc à un réajustement évolutif du système devant la nouvelle donne. Le système s’ouvre aux nouvelles demandes à caractère ethnique de différentes façons et à différents degrés : entre la légalisation et la tolérance. Côté acteurs, les partis ethniques rentrent progressivement dans le jeu politique ; de différentes façons et à différents degrés. Dans notre champ problématique les relations interactives se déploient entre acteurs multi-niveaux (partis-Etats) et dans les divers champs (politique, sociétal et juridique). Leurs connexions sont croisées entre l’espace étatique et internationale, public et civil, politique et sociétal ; avec les Etats d’accueil ou d’origine, mais aussi, les Etats-tiers. Ils sont à velléités indépendantistes ou simplement des lobbies politiques. Nous avons essayé de mettre en lumière les principaux aspects de la complexité de la question ethnique dans les jeunes démocraties politiques ‘‘en consolidation’’. La problématique ethnique des PECO peut-elle nous aider à compléter en actualisant certaines visions généralistes des sciences politiques ? Les acteurs impliqués sont ainsi invités à éviter les pièges des nationalismes perçus comme ‘‘mesquins’’, voire ‘‘chaotiques’’ tout en servant la cause d’une plus souple intégration politique alias la ‘‘paix démocratique’’. / The revolutions of Eastern induced fragmentation of States were accompanied internally by a revival of ethnic parties, which is not without its problems in political democracy. Transitions and even more democratic consolidation are emerging a double phenomenon of interaction between actors and the system in search of a new equilibrium. Ethnic parties then politicize the system opens the ethnic actor. We are witnessing an evolutionary adjustment of the system to the new situation. The system opens to the new demands ethnic ways and to different degrees: between legalization and tolerance. Side actors, are gradually returning ethnic parties in the political game, in different ways and to different degrees. In our problem the field deploy interactive relationships between multi-level actors (parties-States) and in the various fields (political, societal and legal). Their connections are crossed between the State and international space, public and civil, political and social, with host countries or origin, but also the third States. They are separatist ambitions or simply political lobbies. We tried to highlight the main aspects of the complexity of the ethnic issue in young democracies political '' in consolidation ''. The ethnic problem of CEEC can help us to complete updating some general visions of political science? The actors involved are invited to avoid the pitfalls of nationalism perceived as '' petty '' or '' chaotic '' while serving the cause of a more flexible policy integration to the ‘‘democratic peace’’.